Simple VCSEL Base-Station Configuration for Hybrid Fiber-Wireless Access Networks

A simple and compact base-station (BS) configuration that exploits the optical properties of a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) for use in hybrid fiber-wireless access networks is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Compared to existing configurations in the literature, the proposed configuration eliminates the need for external and custom-designed optical elements. Experiments demonstrate that radio-frequency-over-fiber channels can be successfully reflected, added, and rewritten at the BS with low penalty, thereby highlighting the potential of a single VCSEL as an integrated reflector for "thru" channels and a transmitter to "add" and "rewrite" channels.